This weekend for the twelfth year in a row I am teaching a writing intensive called
Good Stories. The workshop is at an unusual writers festival, The Hobart Festival
of Women Writers, started 12 years ago by writer-sisters Breena Clarke and
Cheryl Clarke, and Cheryl’s partner Barbara Bailliet. Cheryl and Barbara were
living in Jersey City and working at Rutgers. When they retired, they decided to
live in Hobart full time.
This retreat is very different from the many retreats I’ve
taught all these years – places like the San Miguel Writers festival, recently
described by a friend as a place where Older White Women Want to Write a
Book. Nothing especially wrong with that, for me especially, an Older
White Woman who’s written some books and want to write more. Still I can’t
help thinking that this festival is a model of inclusion and community, where
people of all races and orientations are not only welcome, but come right here
and form real friendships through their stories, and their writing. We descend on
a small upstate town called Hobart, population 441.
The town was transformed in 2005 by Donald Dales, a local pianist and furniture
restorer who bought entire book collections from two bookstores that closed. He
wanted to recreate a book town modeled on Hay-on-Wye, the first book village,
established in Wales in 1961.
Hobart already had one bookstore, Adams Antiquarian Books, opened by William
Adams, a retired physician, and his wife Diana, a retired lawyer. Barbara and
Cheryl opened Blenheim Hill books a while ago, and when they retired from
Rutgers, and moved from Jersey City to live in Hobart full time.
Delaware county is absolutely one of the most beautiful spots on this planet, and
Driving through these lush and bright green hills- from Hobart to Bovina, from
Bovina to Delhi, is astounding, as astounding as some of the most gorgeous
places on this planet.
I’m not one of those people who can do an adequate job of describing what
beauty looks like. My heart stops here, surrounded by so much lushness,
wildflowers and the promise of what earth can be. And then, this time of year,
we have asparagus, strawberries, mushrooms and ramps. What I can say is that
you should come and see for yourself if you can. And I promise
you’ll find a book or two or three in these charming and unexpected Hobart
bookstores.
A few times a year, the Hobart Festival produces an online journal. This issue
contains the work of one of the festival writers, beautiful Yiddish/English poet
Irena Klepfisz. You can read her poems and the other writers
on aging here:
https://www.hfwwnow.com
Love to all on this beautiful day. Cheryl and Breena Clarke, and me.
i appreciate the story and love the picture :) thank you!
Many thanks to one of our founding participating Writers, Esther Cohen for her great post. Her Intensive Workshop is overwhelmingly successful - each year. It is a magical weekend dedicated to the written word.